Our first day in Cambodia, Ryan and I ate dinner in a restaurant that mostly caters to foreigners, providing a tasting menu of local Khmer food. Granted, by the time we ask for no nuts and no spice, we aren’t exactly getting the full local food experience. We also ordered a ‘safe’ caesar salad, as a back-up, which turned out to be pretty funny, because Ryan then decided he didn’t want to eat any uncooked, unpeeled vegetables (eg. lettuce) in Cambodia. The first course consisted of three salads, all very fresh with fruits and herbs, perfect in the warm and humid weather. The second course of mains ranged from chicken soup to amok fish, a local dish made with fish caught in the river. The third course was dessert; two bowls of beans in sweet coconut milk, my favorites, and then cooked sweet potato and mango custard. Oh, and one complementary glass of local rice wine that really cleared out our sinuses. I had no idea what Cambodian food was going in to the dinner and was surprised at how delicious it all tasted.

Examining the food for peanuts

The loan peanut that got through, luckily wound up on my plate

Main dish sampler

The evening after the Big Circuit bike ride, Ryan and I attended the Phare Cambodian Circus, a great combination of story, music, and acrobatics, with a social mission to help disadvantaged youth in Cambodia. It was a very small round venue, with seats almost on the stage, making you feel up close and personal with the entertainers. The upbeat music had us clapping our hands, and the acrobatics were breathtaking, especially since there is no net. What a fun show!

Restaurants and shops in Cambodia, or at least everywhere we went in Siem Reap, accept both riel (Cambodian currency) and U.S. dollars. All the ATMs in town dispense dollars and almost all prices are in USD. Everyone accepts USD and then provides change in USD or riel if the change is less than $1, using 1000 reil in place of quarters. Each 1000 riel note is approximately $0.25 — but not quite. Ryan likens it to a national effort to inflate the value of their currency since the exchange rate of 1 USD to 4056 riel is always approximated at 1 USD to 4000 riel.

P.S. We are currently hunkering down in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the night (October 31), a slightly unexpected stop. Ryan got sick (reminiscent of Peru) on the first flight of our Bangkok to Perth trip through Kuala Lumpur, so we decided to skip the second flight. Luckily, he is starting to feel better already, so we should hopefully be on our way tomorrow.
P.P.S. And the Red Sox win the World Series?! I’m gone for two months and this is what happens.

The primary reason tourists travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia is to visit Angkor Wat, and our trip was no different. We were introduced to Siem Reap by Mr. Smey, the friendly tuk-tuk driver our hotel sent to the airport for free pick-up. The open air was quite temperate and refreshing during the 15 minute trip to the hotel. Ride in a tuk-tuk checked off the list! Mr. Smey and his tuk-tuk also provided transportation around the ‘Little Circuit’ in Angkor the following day — for the low low price of $15. He dropped us at the entrances, told us where to go, and was waiting for us at all the exits. Now that is incredible service!

Angkor Wat is the largest of the many temple ruins in the Angkor Archealogical Park. ‘Wat’ refers to a monestary temple in the Khmer language, the official language and predominant ethnic group in Cambodia. The earliest buildings in the park were Hindu temples. In the 1200s, the king converted to Buddhism. Additional Buddhist temples were built at that time, and the old Hindu ones were converted to Buddhist. All the temples were then actually converted back and forth a few times between Hindu and Buddhist, finally ending up as Buddhist temples. None are in use any longer, as they really are ruins, but there are many newer covered pavilions nearby where monks can be found praying and talking.

The first day at Angkor included tours of Ta Prohm, Bayon, Baphuon Temple, the Elephant Terrace, the Liper King Terrace, and Phnom Bakheng. Exhausting just thinking about it! Ta Prohm was left in a relative state of decay and is known for the many silk-cotton and strangler fig trees intertwined with the ruins. Bayon is probably the second most famous temple after Angkor Wat, with 37 face towers, each carved with four or more faces, looking down on visitors throughout the temple.
      

Do you feel like you are being watched?

Ryan getting fresh with one of the faces

After Bayon, we took a walk through Baphuon and the Elephant and Liper King Terraces, before heading to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset. Unfortunately, some rain and storms had blown in, so the sunset was rather cloudy, but we still had good views of Angkor Wat and the clouds were picturesque.

      

The second day was dedicated to Angkor Wat and a bike ride around the ‘Big Circuit’. Rental bike options in Siem Reap are either ‘regular’ (upright, single speed, little basket on front) or ‘Giant’ (Giant brand mountain bikes, the most popular bike in Siem Reap). We opted for the 18 speed Giant bikes, which was a good decision since the ride to/from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat and around Big Circuit totalled about 24 miles.

Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument, not just a temple, but actually an entire city dedicated to Vishnu, a Hindu god. The structure has over 600 meters of very detailed narrative bas-relief carvings along the outer stone walls, in addition to carvings throughout the entire complex. We climbed to the upper level for a close up view of the towers and hunted down the only asparas (spirit) showing her teeth. In keeping with our typical weather situations, it started to pour on the way out of Angkor Wat, just in time for a nice wet bike ride to the next points of interest.

      

All things not to be done at Angkor Wat

At the top of a very steep staircase, upper level of Angkor Wat

Asparas showing us her pearly whites

We stopped for lunch en route and hit a few more temples/ruins, but were really out to enjoy the bike ride. The Big Circuit goes along the back side of the park, with more locals than tourists and not much traffic. We passed by a bunch of temples and ruins (they are pretty much everywhere you look), a park, some wetlands, a school, and lots of skinny cows. One temple of note was Prasat Kravan, the only known example of Khmer brick bas-relief. By that point, we were racing to get back before it got dark (riding bikes with traffic in Cambodia was bad enough in daylight), so I just ran in and snapped a few quick photos. The fast ride back took us past a group of monkeys common to the area (had to stop for a few photos) and back near Angkor Wat before sunset.
      
      

[Written with input from Ryan]

P.S. Boo! Happy Halloween to all! We missed seeing everyone at our annual pumpkin carving. Send us some good costume pics.